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Northrend
thumb|300px|Sketched map of Northrend Northrend is the icy, northernmost continent of the world of Azeroth, and the source of the evil Scourge. It is also the home of Icecrown Glacier, the seat of the malevolent Lich King. General info Often called "the roof of the world", Northrend is a frozen wasteland that lies far to the north. As with the other continents, it was once part of the original Kalimdor landmass that was broken apart during the War of the Ancients. The land that became Northrend drifted far from Azeroth's temperate zone, which killed off a large portion of the remaining wildlife. A particularly hardy breed of insectoid-humanoids, the Aqir, had survived the destruction. After thousands of years of evolution, the Aqir became the Nerubians: a sinister, shadowy race of spider-men. While a few humans and trolls eked out survival in small encampments, their presence was no match for the Nerubian Empire. Northrend also contains The Dragonblight: an enormous ice plain covered with the bones of thousands of dragons. As they near death, the great beasts fly to Northrend so that they may die with their ancestors. The Blue Dragonflight, led by the enigmatic Malygos, watches over the Dragonblight to ensure that the remains are undisturbed. The blue dragons were successful in their task for many thousands of years, until the coming of the Lich King... After Ner'zhul the Shaman was captured and tortured by Kil'jaeden, the demonlord transformed the ancient Orc into a dark being of immense power. Now called the Lich King, Ner'zhul was imprisoned within a block of ice and cast back into Azeroth. Ner'zhul's prison landed at the base of the mighty Icecrown Glacier, by far the largest glacier in Azeroth. From this secret location, the Lich King used his telepathic powers to enslave many of the native life forms, including Ice Trolls and Wendigo. With these servants, Ner'zhul created a small army for himself. The Nerubians, aware of the Lich King's threat to themselves and the world at large, launched an attack on Ner'zhul's forces. Thus began the War of the Spider. After ten long years of war, the Nerubians were eventually defeated by the Lich King's endless supply of undead warriors and aid from the Legion's Nathrezim. Most of the Nerubians were slain and reanimated as soldiers in the Undead army, while those who remained alive continued a guerrilla war against the lord of the dead. Satisfied that Northrend was his, Ner'zhul began consolidating his forces for the corruption of Lordaeron. To this end, the Scourge stole many sets of remains from the Dragonblight, which were then reborn as lethal Frost Wyrms. By the end of the Third War, Northrend had seen the corruption of Prince Arthas, who had followed the Nathrezim Mal'Ganis to the cold north in an attempt to stop the Scourge, as well as an invasion attempt by Illidan's Naga and Blood Elf forces, who had hoped to destroy Icecrown and the Lich King. This invasion was thwarted by Arthas and Anub'arak however, and Ner'zhul successfully merged with Arthas to free the Lich King from the Frozen Throne. The Lich King now holds complete domination over Northrend, and the living dare not tread on the frozen continent - especially after a disastrous invasion attempt of the Scarlet Crusade which ended in the expeditionary force being decimated. Even though the Crusaders reached as far as Icecrown Glacier, the heavy losses suffered from this defeat marked an end to the counter offensive and forced the Crusade into a defensive stance, consolidating their powers in the Plaguelands. Scattered remains of Barean Westwind's fleet are likely to be found amongst the Frozen Coast, the skeletal ship wrecks being a warning to any vessel navigating too close to the shores of Northrend. Zones Confirmed Dungeons *Utgarde Keep *Grizzlemaw (Furbolg dungeon). * New Caverns of Time Instance. Possible Dungeons * Azjol-Nerub * The Nexus * Kaskala * Riplash Ruins * Icecrown Citadel * Ulduar * Temple of Storms * Emerald Dream entrance (the Great Tree) * Wyrmrest Temple * Gundrak * Drak'Tharon Keep Native races and species * The Scourge * Ankhegs * Arachnathids * Blue dragons * Furbolgs * Gargoyles * Ice Trolls * Magnataurs * Mammoths * Nerubians * Penguins * Seals * Storm giants * Tuskarr * Vrykul * Wendigo World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Northrend is the setting of the next expansion. In terms of size, a Northrend expansion would be similar in scope to the Burning Crusade expansion: Northrend has been shown to contain ten zone-like areas (eleven counting Azjol-Nerub, which is located underground), compared with the seven zones of Outland plus four zones of Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas featured in Burning Crusade. On a related note, just as Blood Elf and Draenei starting areas were not located in Outland, however, it is unlikely that the continent of Northrend would contain new starting zones. It can therefore be argued that a Northrend expansion might not include new races (at least not without adding a significantly larger number of areas than Burning Crusade added). As for the sizes of the zones themselves, a few (especially the Borean Tundra and the Dragonblight) are huge, making them similar to the larger-than-average zones in Outland. At the same time, however, Northrend appears to also include a few rather small zones (namely Sholazar Basin and Coldarra). Also announced for the expansion is the inclusion of a new class: the Death Knight. Death Knights will be available to players that complete a quest chain and will begin at level 60 or 70. http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3161725 Of course, as with most of the land areas in World of WarCraft, Blizzard can always "tweak" these regions in order to make them into rectangular zones of uniform size and shape. ---- Changes to the Map The map released by Blizzard at BlizzCon 2007 seems to combine elements of the world map released in the original World of Warcraft alpha (Teldrassil has a slightly different appearance, and Kalimdor is curved) with the addons of the two expansions (the Azuremyst island chain, the pointier portion of the northern Eastern Kingdoms where Quel'Thalas is located, and Northrend itself). The islands that were up on the western coast of Lordaeron are now on the western coast of Azeroth. See also * Icecrown * Daggercap Bay Sources *1 1up's sneak preview of the Lich King expansion *Warcraft: Lands of Mystery Sourcebook *Guild of Eternal Night External links * Details from the World of Warcraft RPG at BlizzPlanet.com Category:Lore Category:World:Azeroth Category:Continent:Northrend Category:Wrath of the Lich King